A City Council committee, meeting with the harbormaster and legal counsel, took steps Tuesday night to outline mooring requirements on the waterfront and improve accessibility for boaters.

With little discussion of proposed regulation contents, the council’s Committee on Ordinances and Legislation voted 3-1 to recommend the 18-page “harbor rules and regulations for moorings, mooring permits and anchoring.”

Assistant Corporation Counsel Christy DiOrio, working with Bruce Bannister, the new harbormaster, submitted the document to the council office the day before.

Councilor Ray Mitchell said he wanted time to read it prior to making a recommendation for the full City Council to entertain, probably at its Dec. 18 meeting. Mitchell said he’d likely support it.

DiOrio said the draft ordinance does not represent changes of past practices. Rather, it puts in writing the regulations governing boaters and the authorities held by the harbormaster.

It eliminates some indecision and ambiguous practices, DiOrio said.

Bannister, a lifelong boater and fisherman, became assistant harbormaster early this year and took the head job this fall when Roland Proulx retired. It pays a small stipend.

Bannister recounted his 15 years of varied experience at Battleship Cove, while spending 3,500 hours a year on the water “eating, breathing and sleeping” boating activities.

Proulx, DiOrio said, compiled the meat of the ordinance before she and Bannister refined it over the past month or so.

City Councilors have complained for at least a good year about the methods for distributing moorings, waiting lists and a lack of access to the city’s waterfront.

The regulations apply to “all moorings, floats, mooring tackles as well as vessels anchored, moored or docked” in city waters.

They’d apply to individuals, marinas or private or public recreational boating facilities or yacht clubs, including Battleship Cove.

The biggest change in what they drafted, DiOrio said, would be establishing a one-year waiting rule to use a mooring. It says any boater not using a mooring for a year would forfeit it to the next applicant on the city’s active waiting list.

Slight increases in permit fees were recommended: a $10 bump to $35 for noncommercial moorings and a $5 increase to $55 for commercial ones.

This would be the first time written rules would be in place to be given out with

permits, DiOrio said. An effort about 1985 was unsuccessful.

She noted state law does not require an ordinance.

City Councilor David Dennis, who chairs the economic development and tourism committee, said his concern is mooring regulations be “fair and equitable” and help advance waterfront activities.

“Any time a waterfront gets a bad reputation, it’s very, very difficult to undo,” Dennis said, implying that was Fall River’s problem.

Brad King, Battleship Cove executive director, expressed concern over written regulations reflecting technical changes from past practice. For instance, requiring certain weights for chains on moored ships could result in costly changes at their naval museum, he said.

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Poulin said the City Council could choose to amend regulations, or send the draft back to committee.

DiOrio also submitted a long-range “harbor seasonal mooring plan” that would require approval of the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management under a hearing and permitting process that could take a couple of years.

The committee voted unanimously to forward the plan of 14 recommendations by Bannister to Mayor Will Flanagan. The mayor would appoint a planning representative to initiate the process.